Saturday, April 21, 2012

KitchenAid Advice!

For the past four months since my hand mixer broke, I've been doing all my mixing by hand. I'm ready to upgrade! I'm getting a KitchenAid stand mixer (a belated Christmas present), and I'm having a hard time deciding exactly which one to get. I'm not sure if a 5-quart or 6-quart stand mixer would be better.

I'd love your advice. Do you have a KitchenAid? Which one? Do you love the one you have, or do you wish you had a different one? What KitchenAid would you buy if you wanted to bake regularly, but not professionally?

4 comments:

I have a 5 and since there is just the two of us now at home, I wish I had the 4 as the 5 is large and I think my smaller amounts would do better mixing in the smaller one. That said, if you are going to be doing a lot of larger items, get the 5. And if you want to do bread, make sure you get one that will accommodate that...my 5 was supposedly bread-friendly, but it broke mixing bread dough and I am afraid to use it for anything since. I am thinking about getting a 4 just because I would like it to mix the half-size recipes that I am now making. Hard to explain, because the 5 does mix the smaller amount easily, it just feels like there is too much in there for such a big bowl. See what others think. I end up getting my hand mixer out always for the smaller batches now.

I'd say get the biggest and best you can, if you think you'll use it a lot. I have the 6 qt, 575 watt, professional, and I looooove it! I use it all of the time, for breads, desserts, everything. I think I got it about....4 or 5 years ago maybe. I would get the same one in a heartbeat. Have fun shopping! :)

I'm extremely fortunate and actually have two KitchenAid mixers: the six-quart professional that was a Christmas gift from my husband and a four-quart Artisan that my aunt won in a contest and gave to me. I love them both, but if I had to choose I'd go with the larger bowl-lift versus the smaller tilting head since I make so much bread. A friend of mine also has the six-quarter mixer, but for smaller things she purchased a three-quart (I think) bowl with whisk that fits on the bowl-lift type mixers. If you make a lot of stiff doughs, I would really recommend a bowl-lift model regardless of capacity.